Militant killed in shootout identified

ABDULLAH AL-ORAIFIJ

RIYADH: A security source has told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the suspected Al-Qaeda member shot dead at a checkpoint south of Riyadh Friday had connections to the 113-member nationwide terrorist network whose breakup was announced by the Ministry of Interior last March.

Haila Al-Qussayer, the woman who was arrested for alleged recruitment and financing of the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is believed to have been part of the same network. The security source said the man, who was killed at a checkpoint in Wadi Al-Dawasir, went by the name “Al-Baghdadi”. He said he had tried to enter Yemeni territory to join with Al-Qaeda after recruiting a 17-year-old to the organization.

Al-Baghdadi had reportedly stayed with the teenager for several days in Jizan before the two made a failed attempt to cross the border into Yemen.

The Ministry of Interior is expected to release a statement with further details of Friday’s incident in the next few days.

Maj.Gen Mansour Al-Turki, the spokesman for the ministry, said Friday that the suspected had been traveling by car dressed as a woman when he and his 17-year-old driver were stopped at the checkpoint. The suspect opened fire on highway security checkpoint officials with a pistol and was killed in the subsequent exchange. The driver, who had claimed that the passenger was his mother, was apprehended.